Escape Route
by IDon'tDoSadness
Summary: My twist on what happened in Bare: A Pop Opera/Bare: The Musical. Rating is T for language and talk of suicide, although, if you've seen either version of Bare you're fine. IMPORTANT: On hiatus for a couple of weeks so I can get caught up.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N Hi! I know it's super duper short, but I'll post a new chapter once a week unless I specifically say something. Thanks for reading!**

Peter opens the door to his new apartment in Manhattan with some difficulty what with the four boxes stacked precariously in his arms, Nadia in tow. "Wow, it's umm, tiny." Nadia says without much enthusiasm. "But we'll make it work, right? See, there's 2 bedrooms, a kitchen-ish area, and a little itty living area."

"Yeah, it's luxury alright, but there's a nice view, and it's central," Peter says, not wasting any time with unpacking, starting with the dishes and going into his room and taking his clothes out of boxes, folding and putting them away. "Nadia, thank you for remembering to order the furniture ahead of time so it's already here." No answer. Peter walks out to find the door ajar, and Nadia nowhere to be found, "hmm, maybe she forgot something in the van?"

Nadia re-enters the room carrying a small box, probably filled with pictures and other small keepsakes from St. Cecilia's. Peter and Nadia had left St. Cecilia's, dropped out after the end of the year, and moved in together in New York City. Peter is still depressed, he didn't do all that well in school after Jason died, he looks at pictures of Jason at night. After the funeral Nadia and Peter grew closer, and Ivy is friends with them now too, she gave birth to a beautiful little baby boy, she named him Mark, he looks more like Ivy than Jason, but he has Jason's blue eyes. And now Peter and Nadia are living together, watching TV and eating dinner that Peter cooked. After they eat Nadia takes the clean-up job, since Peter cooked. When she comes back she finds Peter sleeping, curled up. She smiles, _Maybe he'll be alright, _she thinks. As she's turning towards her room she hears a knock at the door. She slowly turns back around, head tilted curiously, she walks to the door, opening it cautiously. She sees a figure standing in the dark, wearing a dark grey hoodie so she can't see their face.

"Who are you?" She asks. "I'm not letting you in without knowing who you are, got it?"

They slowly pull their hood down, revealing dirty blonde hair and blue eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

Nadia and Jason are sitting in the Starbucks down the street from the apartment building, "I don't really get it,

you payed someone to give you a drug that makes you seem dead?"

"Yeah, everything went to shit and I had to get out of there, didn't know how else to do it. I asked Peter to- oh

my god, where's Peter?"

Nadia crosses her arms, "you really didn't think about that one, did you?"

Jason puts his head in his hands, "is he okay? What happened?"

"After you died- or didn't die, he went crazy, he stopped coming to classes, started drinking and eventually cut

his wrists. Luckily Ivy and I had been taking turns bringing him his homework, Ivy found him sitting in the

bathtub, bleeding everywhere."

"But Peter- would Peter really do something like that? He was always the strong one, but he's alright now?"

Jason asks, sounding pained.

"Yes, finally I think he might be. But not if his dead ex/not ex boyfriend, or whatever you two were, suddenly

appears. He'll think he's literally going crazy." Nadia says, sounding angry.

"But-" Jason starts, only to be cut off by his sister.

"No. Peter has become like a second brother to me, and I will not have him hurt again, okay? He went through

all that shit once, and what if something else happened, would you 'die' again?"

"I don't know, I don't think so…" Jason tells her, but uncertainly, as though he's questioning that himself.

"Exactly. You don't know, now I'm sure Peter will see you eventually, but I really want you to be sure that you're

not going to make the same mistakes again."

"I love Peter, and I'm gonna see him again. It's not like you can stop me, is it? Where is he anyway?"

Nadia shakes her head and rolls her eyes, "he's upstairs, sleeping on the couch."

"What? Why the couch?" Jason asks curiously. "Wait, was it a boy thing? Is he moving on?"

"No, he lives with me, we were watching the Oscar's and he fell asleep."

"Oh good- wait, lives with you? Peter's upstairs? Can I see him now, not talk I just want to see him."

"Fine, you can stand in the doorway and look, but no making noise and no trying to wake him up, you got that?"

"Yes sir." Jason says.

They walk up the 6 flights of stairs and Nadia takes out her key and unlocks the door, opening it as widely as

possible and revealing Peter, still in the fetal position, looking quite peaceful.

Jason sighs, "I'm gonna do everything I can to see him again."

"I know you are," Nadia pulls him into a hug. "I love you, you know that, right?"

"I love you too."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N Okay, so sorry about that false 3rd chapter, I didn't even realize that I reposted to 1st one instead of this one, but here it is!**

Nadia pulls away from the hug first, "do you have somewhere to stay?"

"Umm, no…" Jason says, "I'll get a hotel room somewhere."

"No! You don't have to, you can stay in my room, I have a closet I can hide you in."

"Really Nadia, a closet?" Jason asks skeptically.

Nadia glares at him, "Jason, seriously, are you staying or not?"

"Okay, thanks Nadia," Jason tells her gratefully.

She nods, "yeah." She walks into the apartment, "shh, don't wake up Peter, okay?"

Jason nods yes, "uh huh," he whispers, his eyes grow sad, "I wish I had been here… I miss him so much."

Nadia looks at him sympathetically, "I know, but we'll talk things through in the morning, yeah?"

"Yeah."

She leads him over to her room, setting up a sleeping bag in the closet.

"G'night Nadia."

"Night Jason," Nadia rolls over and closes her eyes, she smiles to herself as she goes to sleep.

-The next morning-

Nadia wakes up to the sound of Peter moving around outside her room, she quickly gets up to check the closet and make sure Jason is still there. He is, and still sleeping soundly, Nadia lets out a sigh of relief and goes out of her room to eat breakfast. "Hi Peter, how was the couch?"

"Not great, why didn't you wake me up?" Peter asks, obviously annoyed.

Nadia scoffs, "you looked peaceful, didn't want to disturb you."

Peter rolls his eyes as he takes out two pieces of bread and puts them in the toaster oven that they had

bought.

"Hey Peter, can I have some too?" Nadia asks, "four pieces please?"

"Four?" Peter asks skeptically, "kind of a lot, isn't it?"

"I'm hungry!" Nadia exclaims, "please? I have to work on something in my room and I'm hungry, okay?"

"Fine, fine," he puts four more pieces in the toaster oven. "Wait, what do you have to work on?"

"Something you can't know about, okay?"

"You know, you say 'okay' at the end of almost every sentence, right?" Peter informs her.

"Well sorry, it's not my fault, just how I talk, ok- got it?" Nadia corrects herself at the end.

Peter laughs, but it sounds sort of flat, and almost lifeless. Nadia takes the toast and puts jam on the pieces and runs to her room the find Jakob awake, sitting in the closet, hugging his knees close to his chest. Nadia walks over and hands him the plate, "hungry?" she whispers, and sits down across from him, watching as he takes a piece. Jason nods, "thanks," he mutters.

"So where have you been?" Nadia asks as quietly as possible. Jakob finishes chewing before answering, "I've been in LA, I went there and camped out with an old friend, Erin, remember him?"

"From summer camp in 2006?" Nadia recalls, and Jason nods, taking the other piece of toast off the plate, he says, "thanks for the toast though."

Nadia says, "sure, anytime-" she's interrupted by a loud knocking, and then Peter's voice floats through the door, "hey Nadia, I'm going out to the grocery store, do you want anything?"

"No thanks!" Nadia calls, and Peter replies, "okay, bye then!"

They hear the apartment door close, and Jason asks, "would you mind, can I have a cup of water?"

Nadia answers with a quick sure, and gets up, darting to the kitchen and taking a cup off the shelf, filling it with tap water. She walks back to her room carefully, so she doesn't spill it, and then hands it to Jason. "You can come out if you want, Peter forgot his keys, I saw them on the counter, so I'll have to let him in. It would give you enough time to get into my room."

Jason nods, and stands up, stretching before he walks out to the small kitchen and sits down on one of the stools, "so how is Peter coping?"

"With the love of his life being dead?" Nadia asks, "actually, better than I would have expected. But still not too well. He looks at your picture every night."

"So he hasn't forgotten me?" Jason asks hopefully, and Nadia shakes her head, saying, "I wish he had."

Jason sighs, "yeah, I don't know, I was in a dark place, alright?"

Nadia says exasperatedly, "yeah, but then you put Peter in a dark place, so you can't really justify it like that."

"Yeah, you're right… so what can I do to prove that I won't slip away again?"

"Look, you just need to give him some time, and to be honest I don't really know how we're gonna reintroduce you, but we'll figure something out, I promise."


End file.
